1940s

What? Why? How? Essential Product Information - Sweet’s Catalogue Service
©1942 Design by Ladislav Sutnar

Sweet’s Catalog Service provided catalogs of building and plumbing supplies to architects and contractors. Ladislav along with Knud Lönberg-Holm were responsible for presenting the information within these catalogs in a clear, concise manner.

The promotional, folded sheet above explains the need for easily accessible product information especially during times of war (this was written in the midst of World War 2). As Sweets maintained, providing essential product information in an effecient way could eliminate waste and speed production:

The increasing need for speed in war production is reflected in increasing demand for product information.

In order to be useful such product information should be comprehensive, concise, coordinated

Prefiling of catalogs has been developed as a means for controlling the flow of essential product information

Beautiful layout, far ahead of its time.
For further reading, I suggest Steven Heller’s article Ladislav Sutnar and Knud Lönberg-Holm

Hey everyone, I’ve been out all night gathering photos for an upcoming post. Ok, so maybe the whole night wasn’t dedicated to photos. There might of been some sushi and sake involved along the way. I’m pretty tired but I wanted to get this little design gem up before I went to bed.

If you like this be sure to check:
Erik Nitsche : General Dynamics 1958 annual report
Erik Nitsche : Design and paper #34

World inventors exposition 1947 : Cover design by Alvin Lustig

I found this brochure recently at a flea market near my house. I have never seen this Lustig design before. His use of simple organic shapes reminds me of the cover of Anatomy for interior designers ,which he created 2 years previous, as well as his work for the new classics series published by New Directions.

If you like the cover design above, I highly recommend you visit the official Alvin Lustig website.